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POPULAR EDUCATION DOCUMENT No. 8. 



[Kriiin Ihr- Aine-ili-iiii |i)ariial of Education. 



THE EARLY 




WITHDRAWAL OF PUPILS 



FROM SCHOOL. 



ITS CA.USES AND ITS REMEDIES. 



;iN ESS.W RE/CiD BY ")VlLLIAM T. WaRRIS, AT THE J^ATIONAL EdUC/\.TION AL 

Association, in ■posTON, ^ug. 7TH, 1872, 



OF all subjects of investigation that 
claim the attention of the active 
laborers in Physical Science at the present 
day, that of Meteorology holds the fore- 
most rank. The next great victories over 
nature are likely to be obtained in this 
province, and the benefits to be derived 
from an application of discoveries in this 
realm will far transcend anything hitherto 
achieved. The government of the cli- 
mate, or the complete avoidance of its 
inconveniences, the development of a 
completely scientific agriculture, are fore- 
most and obvious advantages resulting 
from this application. 

But there are more remote and f^r more 
valuable fruits. The iinal conquest of the 
sea, which will be eff"ected by this, is not 
of so great nnoment as the conquest of the 
air as a means of transit. The age of 
steam has created for us a new type of man, 
and a new spiritual world of humanity 
has been the result. The age of aerial 
navigation will be still more potent, in 
developing for us a new era of spiritual 
growth. 



Looked at from a scientific standpoint, 
Meteorology differs from other natural 
sciences in the fact that its object is a kind 
of synthesis of all the other departments. 
The ends of the special threads of the 
sciences of nature come together into one 
knot, and this knot is the problem for the 
solution of meteorology. Optics discover- 
ing the lines in the spectrum ; Astronomy 
discovering the flames and spots in the 
sun; Geology noting the causes of earth- 
quakes ; Mineralogy noting the laws of 
crystalization — all these find themselves 
in a vortical whirl, swiftly drawing near 
a center wherein they are to form one 
process of action and inter-action. 

The profounder thinkers in natural 
science announce for us the doctrine of 
the correlation of forces, wherein light, 
heat, electricity, magnetism, and organi- 
zation, rise from the abyss of gravitation 
and ceaselessly vanish into each other, 
weaving the web of creation. What Faust 
heard in the depths of his cell wlien the 
world-spirit came before him blinding 
his vision, lAal we are slowly realizing 



( 2 ) 



in science: it is this subtle correlated 
process, deep down in nature, thought 
out by the natural philosopher and traced 
out by the meteorologist, that manifests 
the ^^Rrd Geist." 

"At the roaring loom of Time I ply, 
And weave the livinjj- garment of the Deity." 

What emotions arise in the mind of the 
astronomer as he looks out upon the uni- 
verse of stars, and sees them "slow'y 
gathering into one flock," impelled by the 
resistless might of gravity ! Similar must 
be the feelings of the positivist who sees 
the special sciences blending in one dis- 
solving view — an intimation of one all- 
pervading impulse to unity. All things 
return to the center whence they origin- 
ated. 

But to pursue this thought into the 
abyss of nature is not edifying. The most 
ancient nations looked as we do upon the 
spectacle of nature : a vast process of 
creation and destruction of individual 
forms — the perpetual losing of individu- 
ality. The worship of Adonis — the pitiful 
wailing and lamentation over individuality 
that is born only to die — was wide-spread, 
and became the basis of the ''mvsteries" 
of the Greeks and Romans, and of the 
rites of our secret societies in modern 
times. Man saw all natural forms rise 
and decay, impelled by a negative, de- 
stroying might, and he shuddered at the 
thought of his own destiny. The deep 
sadness, the inward pain at the thought 
of dissolution has made man more and 
more internal, more and more it has 
caused him to build up, out of the sub- 
stance of his thought, a spiritual dwelling 
of his own, "far removed from birth and 
decay." This imperishable world of spirit 
— the joint product of the earnestness, the 
suifering, the sweat of blood, the wrestling 
prayers of the human race — is the com- 
plex of the institutions of civilization. 
Nearer to man by far than the physical 
wor!d around him it stands to each human 
soul. For it is by its mediation alone 
that the material world shall be used and 
enjoyed, or the cup of sorrow tasted at its 
hand. If you but think of it, you shall 
not put forth your hand to take aught — 
whether it be of the nature of food, cloth- 
ing, or shelter — unless with the good-will 
and consent of human society. For in all 
your actions you shall presuppose contin- 
ually the laws of property and possession. 
Thf*e laws are the acts of rerosrnition on 
the part of society in anticipation of the 
individual ; society stands waitingfor him, 
and insists persistently on this point of 
etiquette — "You, particul-ar individual, 
shall take what you need only in the form 
of property {_i.e., universalized goods and 



chattels), and thus shall recognize me 
(society) as your alter idem, and through 
such recognition shall eXevdite yourself to 
a universal existetice — that is to say, to a 
spiritual existence." Therefore it is that 
man, at his advent, finds not only his 
presupposition in the family, but he finds 
it still more in civil society and the State. 
He cannot make his exit, nor can the 
earth hide him, without the same recog- 
nition on the part of society : the formal 
registration, or the still more formal sit- 
ting of the coroner's jury. 

Therefore it is that we speak of man's 
spiritual dwelling — ctviltzatton, with its 
mansions of special institutions, the fam- 
ily, society, the State, religion — as a more 
direct and immediate existence to the in- 
dividual than mere physical nature; for 
it is on all hands the instrument through 
which the latter is seized and appropriated 
by him. Physical ntture must first be 
universalized — made property through 
the impression of the spiritual stamp 
upon it — before it can be used by the in- 
dividual. Like the current coin, it must 
first receive the stamp of society before it 
can lawfully circulate, i. e., be used by the 
individuals of the community. Even the 
general elements shall not be enjoyed ex- 
cept through the same mediation. The 
individual man shall not walk in the 
street, breathe the common air, be warm- 
ed by the sun, or fanned by the wind, 
unless society licenses him, with more or 
less formality, to live within its precincts. 

Our thoughts, at the contemplation of 
the science of meteorology, with its cos- 
mical interaction of correlated forces, 
recur, as we look ypon the vast web of 
conventionalities and formal usages or- 
ganized into institutions under the aggre- 
gate name of civilizatio?i. Here at last 
we have found a one, a unity, for which, 
in which, and through which all indi- 
viduals exist and come to the fruition of 
their being. 

It is the investigation of this wonderful 
process that gives rise to social science, 
the foremast spiritual science of the daj', 
just as meteorology is the foremost physi- 
cal science. Like the latter, too, it com- 
prehends in its extent the functions of a 
myriadof minor instrumentalities. These 
latter depend upon the general science 
for their explanation; for the central 
process contains the moving principle in 
its entn-ety. It was Anstotle who first 
taught the scientific thinker to trace the 
fragmentary provinces of a system back 
to the central moving principle; by its 
means are to be explained the others; 
they are only its accidents — in its evolu- 
tion it produces them. 



\ 



( 3 ) 



In studying the phenomena of human 
life, from the broad pointof view of social 
science, we find the definitions and limits 
of education, a^ well as of political econo- 
my and the allied sciences. Social and 
political ^cience should investigate the 
essence of civilization, its laws of growth 
and decay, and preservation. The evolu- 
tion of national ideas, their relation to 
previous and contemporary national ideas, 
and their limits which doom them to yield 
their place in the world of actuality — the 
study of these national ideas is the neces- 
sary preliminary to intelligent insight 
into the growth of history. The natural 
limitations, such as territory, climate and 
surroundings, are to be studied for the 
temporal element — the brick and mortar 
with which the architect-idea is to make 
itself visible. 

Now, education is that branch of social 
science which treats of the preservation 
of civilization — not of its evolution, 
growth, or decay, for the causes of these 
lie tar deeper than in a system of educa- 
tion. 

• It is necessary to bear this in mind ; for 
every day we hear the would-be social 
reformer, or the professional croaker, 
refer to education things entirely beyond 
its scope — things which education can do 
little to make or to mar. 

Coming togeth'.'r as we do. represent- 
ing the educational interests of the nation, 
it is of especial importance that we dis- 
cuss our problems in the full light of 
social science. When we see clearly what 
education may accomplish, and how far 
it may extend, and wherein it is supple- 
mented by other social sciences, we sliall 
then be able to see and apply practical 
remedies for pedagogical evils, and shall 
not waste our time in portraying ideals 
that can never be realized. We shall not 
be annoj'ed by our diflferences from other 
nations or peoples in this or that respect, 
but shall be able to justify our own 
methods, while recognizing the merit of 
other methods for different circumstances. 

These considerations lead us to the 
point of view from which to discuss the 
present theme — that of the early with- 
drawal of youth from school. 

It is obvious that education has a two- 
fold province when we consider it as the 
means of preservation of civilization. It 
includes the initiation into X\\^ practice oi 
what belongs to civilized man, and sec- 
ondly, an initiation into the ideas that lie 
at the basis of that practice : in short, it 
is an inculcation Of forms and convention- 
alities — moral education ; and inculcation 
of theory — intellectual education. 

Inasmuch as, in our nation, we require 



all to ascend to a participation in govern- 
ment, it is essential that our education 
embrace not mi reU' the passive side of 
moral education — the inculcation of forms 
of practice — but it must furnish an insight 
into the necessity of these fi^rms. Where 
the individual is to find his limit from 
within, we must see to it that his,i:envic- 
tion is cultured so far as to baseT^itself on 
an insight into the rational necessitv of 
moral action; otherwise he will substitute 
caprice and selfishness for ethical motives. 

Education takes place through the 
school, and through other agencies, such 
as the famil)', social intercourse, and 
municipal regulations. Its relative pro- 
portion in each of these agencies varies 
with the nation or country Where, as 
in Germany, the family, social and muni- 
cipal influences are very str^-^ng, little is 
lei't for the school to do in the way of 
moral education : the boys and girls are 
good, and may be safely left pretty much 
to themselves so far as the discipline goes. 
They will work, each for himself, to learn 
the appointed tasks. But in our coun- 
try all these first mentioned influences are 
comparatively weak, and more is left for 
the school to perform. The school must 
seize the pupil, and train him by a strict 
discipline to obedience, before it can do 
much with him in an intellectual point of 
view. A lax school allows the weeds of 
selfishness, indolence, and insolence to 
grow up and choke the fair virtues that 
spring from self-restraint and renuncia- 
tion. 

It is therefore especially important that 
we in this country extend the school-life 
of the child during the most plastic period 
of his growth. Moral education requires 
time — far more than theoretical educa- 
tion. Where we must do both — give the 
child theoretical and practical education — 
we should require the maximum of time 
in school. In one word, our whole edu- 
cation should aim to give the pupil direct- 
ive power; he is to be called upon (more 
than is the case in any other nation) for 
the outlay of directive power. He must 
therefore be practised for a long time in 
self-government, and he must be tho- 
roughly initiated into the social necessity 
that underlies moral action ; he must see 
principles. Upon such, and such forms 
alone, is the combination of man with 
man based, and this combination is the 
necessary condition for the ascent of one 
and all above the life of mere animals. 

To the superficial observer the extra- 
ordinary demand made on the individual 
in our time for directive power is merely 
transitory, it is only contingent on the 
newly settled condition of our country. 



( 4 ) 



To a close observer, however, it is appa- 
rent that this demand for individuality is 
one that is likely to increase through all 
the future. The extraordinary facility of 
transit and communication— steam, the 
telegraph, and newspaper, are merely the 
instruments created by the idea of the 
age. which desires the existence of an 
active, thinking being in each human 
brain. The result is that all people are 
living on the frontiers of their national 
life, and are continually acting the part of 
pioneers. The intens)ty of this life will 
increase with the continued growth of 
inter-communication; the ties of family, 
and society, and State, are destined to 
relax in behalf of the ties of humanity — 
clannishness is to give place to cosmo- 
politan culture. The function of the 
school is therefore destined to grow in 
importance in all nations, and thus it is 
a legitimate inquiry for educators to make : 
How can we increase the pupil's time in 
school. 

Again, it is not an indifferent matter to 
the educator whether the pupil spends the 
first years of his youth in school, or his 
later years. In case the first years are 
devoted to school, more of unconscious 
practice may be had, and the forms will 
make a deeper impression; there will be 
less of conscious insight, "however. In 
case the later years are spent in school, 
self-determining reflection and insight 
maybe acquired, but habits already form- 
ed will receive less modification. If we 
are to choose, in the light of the demands 
of our civilization, we should say the later 
education rather than the earlier. But, 
fortunately, w-e are not obliged to choose 
It happens that early education is of great 
influence in preventing premature with- 
drawal from school. 

I. IMPORTANCE OF KARI.Y SCHOOL- 
ING. 

I shall therefore mention, as one of the 
causes of such early withdrawal, the neg- 
lect of school education until the pupil is 
advanced into the later period of youth. If 
he attends school then, he is subjec: to con- 
tinual mortification on account of his com- 
paratively low standing with pupils of his 
own age. He is shut out from competition 
with those whom he chooses as playmates, 
and must constantly see himself surpassed 
by striplings. This cause works power- 
fully to prevent older youth from getting 
the education they feel the need of. 

For this reason it is felt to be a very 
important thing to attract pupils to our 
schools while they are yet quite young. 
I am of the opinion, however, that in 
general this matter is not sufficiently at- 



tended to. We have in all our States 
manv special conditions that enhance the 
importance of this early schooling. There 
is the call for youth to enter the fields of 
productive industry, at an age closely 
bordering upon infancy. In our manufac- 
turing population, now growing far more 
rapidly than any other population, this is 
a very serious evil. Various devices, such 
as statute laws, requiring a certain num- 
ber of months per year, or a certain num- 
ber of days per week, have been tried. 
Evening schools have been established, 
libraries and reading rooms opened; still 
the problem is but indifferently solved. 
Looking at this phase of the subject, and 
considering the fact that in such com- 
munities the family life at home is mostly 
pernicious to the child, and his life on the 
street still more so, I think it necessary to 
modify the character of our lowest primary 
schools, allowing the entrance of pupils 
at the age of four years, and making the 
exercises less severe, and more entertain- 
ing to the pupil. Large changes, looking 
in the direction of the kindergarten sys- 
tem of Froebel, can probably be made to 
advantage. 

Pupils thus received and nurtured at 
an early age will be at least made to love 
school, and to form good habits. They 
will be likely to continue at school to a 
far greater age than otherwise, for two 
reasons; first on account of the fact 
that having learned to love school life, 
their preference will go far to determine 
the consent of the parents. The child in 
this country has so much self assertion 
that he, as a rule, prevails over the will 
of his mother; and the two combined — 
what father can resist.' Great power lies 
in the hands of school managers, there- 
fore, to control school attendance by 
making schools attractive to children. 
The other reason for this eftect of earl}- 
school life upon the continuance of it has 
been adverted to in speaking of the fact 
that mortification at disparity of age and 
advancement deters many from attending 
school who would do so in later youth 
although they had neglected it before. 

II. COLLISIONS IN DISCIPLINE. 

I would mention as a second cause of 
the early withdrawal of youth from school, 
collisions in discipline.. Want of skill on 
the part of the teacher, arising from im- 
perfect self-control or from lack of insight 
into human nature, is the fruitful occa- 
sion of this deplorable result. This is a 
problem difficult of solution for the school 
manager. The most efficient means I 
have found is the prompt transfer of the 
pupil to some other school, by the su- 



( 5 ) 



perintendent. Great delicacy is necssary 
to prevent the feeling of triumph on the 
part of the pupil or the parent. But with a 
proper degree of stress laid on the various 
phases of the en or of the pupil and a 
few words on the necessity of the teacher's 
.position, one can usually manage lo make 
both pupil and parent feel that a trial in 
in another school is very considerate 
treatment and worth strong promises of 
amendment. But the best of this system 
of transfer is the hold it gives the super- 
intendent on the self-control and general 
management of his teachers. Teachers 
who have their mistakes thus corrected 
are apt to take great pains to Jivoid them. 
Unless one can have some check of this 
kind on school discipline it is extremely 
liable to become harsh and produce the 
results mentioned; many a youth with a 
brittle temper will leave school before 
his tinie, if the teacher's system is not 
adapted to anneal his temper before at- 
tempting forcibly to bend it. 

In this connection it is worthy of remark 
that the system of corporal punishment 
generally employed is likely to go out of 
use altogether before the close of the 
century. Any review of its history will 
convince one of this. The sense of honor 
is developed earlier and earlier with each 
succeeding generation, and corporal pun- 
ishment should give place to punishments 
of honor as soon as this sense developes. 
Honor is the feeling of the recognition of 
one's essentiality on the part of the com- 
munity. To be deprived of this recog- 
nition is a keen suffering to most 
American youth above the age to enter 
school. Suspension from school is a 
means of punishment based on the sense 
of honor in pupil and parent, and also 
on the desire of the latter for the culture 
of his child Municipal authority in the 
shape of truant and vagrant regulations 
must be relied on to supplement a mild 
school discipline, and special reform 
schools in which the spirit of military 
discipline prevails, will train into mechan- 
ical habits of obedience those who are 
morally too weak for the common school. 

III. DEFECTIVE Gl^ADIiNG. 

I would mention as a third cause of 
early withdrawal Defective Grading-. As 
the second cause mentioned is defective 
discipline, the third is defective instruc- 
tion or organization of chisses for in- 
struction. In the unclassified schools the 
pupil necessarily feels that he gets little 
of the teacher's attention. The teacher 
divides up his time among his pupils, 
hearing many classes that contain only 
one two or three pupils. His time is so 



dissipated that he gives only five minutes, 
or so, to a recitation. This suflfices merely 
to hear the pupil repeat the words of the 
text book. The pupil on arriving at 
years of reflection, finding that he gets 
very little of the teacher's time and that 
he really learns only what he gets from 
his text book unaided, sees no use in con- 
tinuing his attendance upon school and 
therefore leaves school. When we con- 
sidei the value of the unclassified school 
as a means of cullure to the community 
we find it extremely limited, and do not 
so much lament the decision of the older 
pupil who leaves, for the reason here 
mentioned. The advantage to him was 
of a moral and social kind, but very 
small, theoretically considered. The un- 
classified school has disappeared from 
our cities and large villages, but it still 
exists in the countrj' districts very gener- 
ally. Whenever the sizes of the schools 
have been such as to admit of it, a system 
of classification has been introduced and 
the immediate consequences have been : 
(a), great increase in the length of reci- 
tation; (5), far more thoroughness in the 
discussion of the lesson, siftingthe different 
statements and probing the meaning of the 
same; (c), great stimulation of the men- 
tal activity of the pupil through trial and 
competition with other members of his 
class. These three advantages can scarce- 
ly be overestimated. They multiply the 
teacher's power just as organization im- 
proves the strength of an army. In the 
unclassified system the teachei is only a 
private tutor, and the fewer pupils he has, 
the better for each and all. In the clas- 
sified system the proper quota of pupils 
is a potent instrument in the hands of 
the teacher, and he uses the whole class 
to correct and stimulate each one in it. 
The lesson, as recited and discussed by 
and before the class, gets all its phases 
stated, restated, and criticized as it never 
could in the case of a single pupil with a 
private tutor. The presence of the class 
arouses to a high pitch of energy the 
teacher, and each individual in the class 
is excited by the presence of the teacher 
and the rest of the class. These cir- 
cumstances account for the high esti- 
mation in which the graded system is 
everywhere held. So many good things 
have a tendency to hide some very serious 
defects. It is this very system, however, 
that is so organized as to prove the very 
greatest of all causes for the early with- 
drawal from school. To this aspect of 
graded schools I therefore invite your 
most earnest attention while I endeavor 
to portray its injurious effects and suggest 
the remedy for them. 



( 6 ) 



The tendency of all classification is to 
unite pupils of widely different attain- 
ments. Especially is this found in small 
schools. The consequence is that the 
lesson is too long for some and too short 
for others. The best pupils in the class 
are not tried to the full extent of their 
ability; they consequently lose in some 
degree the discipline which they should 
gain. The poorest pupils of the class are 
strained to the utmost. They are drag- 
ged, as it were, over the ground without 
having time to digest it as they should. 
This developes the result that the over- 
worked pupils are frequently discouraged 
and drop out of the class, and likely 
enough out of the school altogether. In 
large systems of schools where classifica- 
tion is very perfect the evil here spoken 
of need not occur to a serious degree; but 
it dees so very frequently from the fact 
that the course of study is laid out in 
grades (ten more or less in number) and 
all pupils are classified or graded so that 
each belongs to one of these grades. 
All the pupils in the grade must be in the 
same degree of advancement at about 
the same time. The result is that the 
school is classified in such a way that 
the'-e are ten classes separated by inter- 
vals of from five to ten month's work. 
Then promotion is made from one grade 
to another at set times, annually or semi- 
annually. All who pass the examination 
commence the work of the next grade : 
all who do not, continue until the next 
examination in the work of the grade 
through which they have just passed. 
The effect of this is tVightful as a cause 
of early withdrawal from school. The 
parent and pupil feel very keenly the time 
lost. The pupil must have been over 
much of the work of the year : perhaps 
nine-tenths, or three-quarters, or perhaps 
only one- half of it. Yet what he has done 
entitles him to an advanced position over 
his fellow pupils of the next class below 
him. If he returns to school after being 
thrust back a year for his lack of less 
than half a year, he appears in the ranks 
of a class who were a 3'ear's work behind 
him. He has lost his ambition : he is 
sometime in the class before they come to 
work difficult enough to arouse him to 
the exertion of his full energies. Mean- 
while he has lost his discipline for hard 
study and he is very likely to break down 
a second time on the work of the year. 
A .second failure for promotion is nearly 
sure to cause withdrawal from school. 
The parent has lost faith in the talents of 
his child and puts him into business or 
apprentices him to a trade. The youth 
has lost his own confidence in himself 



and is a stunted intellectual growth for 
the rest of his life. 

Was there any advantage in this kind 
of grading.^ How could it otherwise have 
transpired? Instead of the procrustean 
bed of grades, the pupils should have 
been classified into classes of thirty, or 
less, each. These classes in all large 
schools would be separated by intervals 
of about five weeks' work. As often as 
these classes, any of them, become too 
small by the withdrawal of pupils, or too 
large by the assignment to them of new 
comers, there should be a new formation 
of classes. The best pupils of one class 
are to be sent up to the next, the best from 
the next below are to be promoted and 
joined with the pupils remaining. Those 
not promoted are now united with the 
best of the class that is five weeks' work 
behind them. The degradation is scarcely 
felt. It was rather called, in both cases, 
a promotion of the best ones, not a de- 
grading of the poorest. It is a process of 
cutting up the school into classes anew, 
and as a matter of fact the pupils need 
not have changed rooms to any very great 
extent. 

A set time for examination and promo- 
tion is injurious, just in the ratio of its 
infrequency. Annual examinations for 
promotion, and the discontinuance of pro- 
motions at other times, is an extremely 
pernicious system, and occasions early 
withdrawal from school more than any 
other cause. It is evident that the farther 
advanced the pupil, the more unfavorably 
will it affect him; and yet, in our schools 
throughout the country, the system is so 
arranged that this procrustean device ap- 
plies more especially to the advanced 
pupils. In how many of our cities is there 
promotion to the High School oftener than 
once per year.'' What becomes of the 
pupils who lack one per centum of mak- 
ing the standard required.'' Are they not 
sent over the work of the highest grade 
of the grammar schools again, and thus 
made to occupy a year in doing what 
they might do in one-fourth of that time? 
And do they not leave school at this crisis 
more than at any other time in the whole 
course? Are not our High Schools ar- 
ranged in grades or classes just one year 
apart in their work? And is all this ne- 
cessary? Not certainly where there are 
pupils enough to make two or more divi- 
sions of thirty pupils each. If the pupils 
from the highest grade of the Grammar 
Schools had been classified according to 
their rank in the examination, the first 
thirty would have formed the highest 
division on the High School work, the 
next thirty the second division, and so 



( 7 ) 



through those who had made a reasonable 
standard. Then would have come the 
highest thirty pupils in rank of those not 
admitted, who should be admitted to a 
central schopl and conditioned to five 
weeks' work on the studies of the first 
grade of the Grammar School, and then 
examined again ; the next thirty to a 
longer period, and so on. Pupils thrown 
back five weeks, and then classified with 
their own fellows who had been unsuc- 
cessful, would find the hardship a very 
trivial one, and would scarcely think of 
leaving school in disgust. 

For schools where the number in any 
grade fell short of the requisite thirty 
wherewith to form a new division — of 
course this plan of subdivision could not 
be carried out. But so far as the first 
grade of the Grammar School is concerned 
this would rarely happen, and still less 
likely would it occur with classes below 
the 'highest grade. The principle is 
clearly this : Not a procrustean bed of 
grades on which the school is to be 
be stretched so as to reduce the number 
of grades of advancement to ten, or any 
other special number; but a thorough 
classification of all the pupils into classes 
on a certain quota as a basis, whether 
this be thirty or twenty-five, or whatever 
other number is considered the best. The 
endeavor will be to have classes separated 
by as small an interval as possible. But 
four or six weeks' work is small enough 
for all practical purposes. And in order 
to make this arrangement uniform, the pu- 
pils in upper grades, when too few to form 
classes with the required quota, should 
be brought together in central schools; 
and this principle should be applied as 
far as possible : if the highest grade in the 
High School consisted of sixty pupils or 
more, the division of it into two classes 
would be required. 

The results of the arrangement here 
proposed will work the following good 
effects : 

1. It will enable one to fix a higher per 
cent, for admission to the High School, 
and for promotion from class to class. 

2. It will bring together into classes 
pupils who are comparatively near to- 
gether as respects qualifications. 

3. It will render possible the new for- 
mation of the divisions by promotion of 
the best pupils from each division into 
the next higher, whenever considerable 
inequality begins to manifest itself in any 
of the classes or divisions. 

4. This continual adjustment will ren- 
der far more efficient the instruction, the 
good pupils being very seldom kept back 
for the poor ones. 



5. The whole school system will be- 
come elastic and mobile. Like the cur- 
rent of a river there will be, everywhere, 
forward motion — in the middle the current 
is more rapid, at the sides the current 
fiows more slowly. The work of the grade 
laid down for a year's study will be ac- 
complished in three, or three and a half, 
quarters by the brightest, by the dullest 
and slowest in five quarters 

6. There will be no temptation to push 
on a slow pupil, or drag him beyond his 
powers; no temptation to promote a pupil 
to a new grade's work before thoroughly 
completing what is belovy him. 

7. This system will reduce to a mini- 
mum the early withdrawal from school 
on account of non-promotion. 

8. Its economy is a very considerable 
item, inasmuch as the divisions in the 
upper grades would be kept continually 
full by promotion from below. 

9. Inasmuch as pupils are continually 
entering school, and others continually 
leaving, it is clear that a system of grades 
nailed to the calendar, and inflexible as 
the seasons, is not so well adapted to 
actual emergencies as one wherein the 
extreme of classification is reached com- 
patible with the established quota for the 
size of classes. 

10. By this plan would be checked a 
pernicious system of holding back pupils 
from examination for the High School 
simply for the purpose of gaining a repu- 
tation for the school through the high 
per cent of its pupils in the competitive 
examination. 

Doubtless there is a certain degree of 
thoroughness requisite in the lower 
branches before the pupil can profitably 
take up the studies of the next higher 
grade. After attaining this per cent, it is 
possible to continue the pupil drilling 
over the lower work, in order to secure a 
certain mechanical thoroughness, so long 
as to waste much time that might be bet- 
ter expended for the pupil's culture and 
growth on the higher studies. 

It is in these higher studies that the 
pupil gets most directive power — the most 
valuable power that the community can 
obtain from its schools. When a com- 
munity does not educate its directive in- 
telligence, it is forced to import it at a 
very exorbitant price. With reason, there- 
fore, it is a matter of concern to a com- 
munity to prevent, if possible, the early 
withdrawal of its youth from school. 

The causes which I have discussed here 
are, lack of early schooling, injudicious 
discipline, bad grading, including the 
lack of classification and the making of 
the system too rigid. Other causes, such 



( « ) 



as the pressure of poverty, or the avarice 
of parents, or the over demands of pro- 
ductive industry (as happens in the case 
of war where the adults join the army and 
leave the older youth to carry on their 
tasks at home) — these causes and others, 
such as dissipation or criminal negligence 
of parents, I pass over for the reason that 
they belong to the legislator, or to the 
political econoinist to consider, and not 
specially to the educator. 



ADI^END A. 

Objectiotis considen-J in the Debate that followed 
the reading of this paper . 

I come next to consider certain objec- 
tions that are likely to be made. Inas- 
much as the conventional forms of activity 
become also moulds for the formation of 
opinion on all related subjects, the new 
scheme is censured for not fulfilling func- 
tions entirely dispensed with in the 
system based upon it. I hear the ob- 
jection made, that this system would 
cause a collection of the dull and stupid 
pupils into classes by themselves — a de- 
plorable result. But this is one of the 
evils which this system is adapted to cor- 
rect. The fact that the best pupils from 
below are allowed to rise through the 
masses above them, as fi-'.st as their ability 
can carry them, is surely not likely to 
prevent the slower pupils who are their 
companions from exerting all their ener- 
gies, and making considerable progress. 
The sti-eam of bright pupils from below is 
inexhaustible; from the primary grades 
it ascends, continually passing fixed 
points, or points that move on more 
slowly. In every class there will be its 
quota of bright pupils, some leading the 
class and some just sustaining themselves 
in it, having recently joined it. But in 
the old system, all the bright pupils had 
attained the top of the class, and the dull 
ones had fallen hopelessly to the bottom, 
long before the needed re-classification 
took place. 

It has been further objected that this 
system causes so rapid a change from 
teacher to tea cher that the very important 
personal inftuence of the teacher is mate- 
rially impaired. But under this system 
in the higher grades the pupil would 
hardly change teachers oftener than once 
or twice per year, and a change as often as 
this is desirable for the healthy individual 
culture of the child. The school should 
not be ^family influence, exclusively. It 
is the transition to civil society; conse- 



quently the pupil must change teachers 
often enough to correct any one-sided 
tendencies of social culture that he may 
be liable to acquire from the individual 
teacher. 

In small towns where the High School 
classes do not number over thirty pupils 
each, such subdivision as I have here 
described cannot be accomplished. But 
in such places there is ample occasion to 
apply this system to the district schools, 
which frequently suffer more than the 
High School from the wide intervals be- 
tween the higher classes. Transfer of the 
same to the High School as a preparatory 
class, or to intermediate schools will be 
found a salutary measure. 

In the next place, it is objected that this 
plan prevents a general examination of a 
system of schools on one standard, as 
conducted by a superintendent. At a 
given time in the year the pupils in any 
one grade will not be found in the same: 
degree of advancement, but will be at as 
many different stages of work as there are 
classes. But this general examination is 
no longer required as a test for promotion, 
and hence its value is limited to the dis- 
covery of differences between classes, a 
function that it will perform excellently 
under the system proposed. More than 
this, by the new system one can test the 
thoroughness of a class by comparing its 
work on the examination with that of 
other classes next to it, above or below. 

In the St. Louis schools there are 29 ' 
pupils in the first year's work to 22 in the 
second, 21 in the third, 12 in the fourtn, 
7 in the fifth, 4 in the sixth, 2^ in the 
seventh year's work, and 2j in the High 
School course of four years. Thus the 
grading there is uniformly good in the 
lowest three years of the course in all the 
schools. In the upper four years of the 
District School course, and in the High 
School course, it becomes necessary to 
transfer pupils to central schools, in order 
to secure the same advantages. The sys- 
tem of Intermediate Schools in Cincinnati 
was designed to accomplish this object. 
In Chicago and St. Louis the grad- 
ing in the lower classes of the District 
Schools has been for some time conducted 
on the system here proposed, and with 
satisfactory results. The introduction of 
the same system into the liigher classes, 
as here proposed, would seem to be 
demanded by all practical considerations, 
such as economy of teachers' salaries 
and economy of time on the part of the 
pupil. 




021 588 984 1 



